Hy-Vee to Open 1st-of-Their-Kind Fitness Equipment Showrooms
Hy-Vee Inc. is joining forces with Johnson Fitness & Wellness, the largest specialty wellness retailer in the United States, to open in-store fitness equipment showrooms in select locations across the food retailer’s eight-state market area. This represents the first partnership in the United States between a grocer and a fitness equipment company, with the first location opening Tuesday, Sept. 14 inside a Hy-Vee store in Grimes, Iowa. Several additional locations are slated to open by the end of the year.
Each in-store showroom will provide several types of fitness equipment for customers to view and try out, including treadmills, elliptical machines and exercise bikes. The showrooms will be digitally supported, with a kiosk and QR codes available for customers to use to order from the Johnson Fitness & Wellness online platform. Free curbside home shipping will be available for most items, with in-home delivery and installation available for an additional cost.
Cottage Grove, Wis.-based Johnson Fitness & Wellness offers a wide selection of award-winning fitness and wellness products for all ages and stages of life from such brands as Matrix Fitness, Vision Fitness, Horizon Fitness, Synca Wellness and more. The retailer operates 91 stores in 20 states.
“As part of our mission [of] making customers’ lives easier, healthier and happier, we are deeply invested in the health-and-wellness journey of our customers,” noted Randy Edeker, chairman, CEO and president of Hy-Vee. “Our new partnership with Johnson Fitness & Wellness allows us to diversify and expand upon our current health offerings to provide our customers with all the tools they need to live a healthy lifestyle.”
“We’re excited to partner with Hy-Vee, who shares our mission of enhancing the lives of our customers through healthy choices,” said Johnson Fitness & Wellness President Bob Zande. “This unique opportunity allows customers to get hands-on experience with high-quality, high-value fitness solutions where they already shop every week, and the online kiosk allows for them to easily have the equipment delivered to their home.”
Hy-Vee recently debuted a similar hybrid shopping experience with its rollout of in-store Pair Eyewear kiosks at select stores, also starting with the Grimes location.
Employee-owned Hy-Vee has a team of 86,000 employees and operates more than 280 retail stores across eight Midwestern states, with sales of $11 billion annually. The West Des Moines, Iowa-based company is No. 34 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2021 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.
